The gate shimmered, bleeding red light like a wound torn in the sky.
System Notification:
[Dungeon Instance: Crimson Crypts]
Rank: D
A suffocating stench of rot and blood pressed against them as Rin and his small party entered.
Coffins lined the walls, half-cracked, shadows twitching inside. The crypt hummed with hunger.
---
System Identification: [Fledgling Vampire]
Rank: D-
Newly turned, reckless and starved. Fragile bodies, but enhanced speed and claws sharp enough to cut steel. Hunt in packs.
The coffins burst open. Feral eyes gleamed.
---
The first wave came as a blur of fangs and claws.
Min Jae-seok raised his hand — the air rippled. An unseen force slammed outward, crushing a cluster of Fledglings against the stone walls. Their spines cracked like branches underfoot.
Another darted low, slashing for Rin's legs. Jae-seok's eyes glowed — the vampire froze mid-air, suspended like an insect in amber. With a flick, its body caved inward, bones folding.
"Pathetic," Jae-seok muttered, sweat beading across his brow.
---
So-yeon roared forward like a storm. His body was a blur of fists, knees, and kicks.
A low slide — his elbow rammed into a vampire's chin, snapping its neck. He spun mid-air, heel crashing into another's skull, blood spraying against the walls. Landing in a crouch, he pivoted into a brutal uppercut, sending a vampire's head flying like a broken doll.
He grinned savagely. "This is more like it!"
---
Hyun-woo's flames lit the chamber.
"Solar Flare!"
A column of fire detonated, engulfing a wave of Fledglings. Their shrieks echoed as ash scattered across the crypt. Hyun-woo planted his palm to the floor, flames crawling outwards, forming a blazing Flame Domain. Any vampire that crossed it burned alive.
---
And Rin… moved like water.
His blade was a constant flow. Sidestep, sever; pivot, thrust; slide, slash. His movements weren't System shortcuts — they were honed instincts.
One vampire lunged — Rin leaned, letting claws graze air, before slashing upward in a severing arc that cleaved its torso cleanly. Another struck from behind — his sword cut backward without looking, piercing its heart.
The Codex moved with him. Each strike, precise. Each step, inevitable.
---
When the last fledgling fell, silence returned.
Until the chamber shook.
The coffin at the far end of the crypt cracked open with a low groan.
From within, a tall figure stepped out, pale skin stretched tight over sharp muscles, crimson eyes gleaming. Its fangs bared in a hungry grin.
System Identification: [Neonate Vampire]
Rank: D+
An ascended fledgling. Sharper, faster, gifted with Blood Magic. A predator that feeds on both flesh and spirit.
The Neonate's aura flooded the chamber, heavier than any fledgling before it. The group's breath hitched; even standing near it felt like drowning in blood.
The vampire moved first.
A blur of red.
Its claws slashed through stone as though it were paper — where Rin had been standing a second ago.
"Spread out!" Rin barked.
---
So-yeon was the first to charge. His fist smashed into the vampire's chest, the impact echoing through the chamber like a drum. The Neonate only staggered back a step before countering with a swipe that sent So-yeon skidding across the floor, blood at his lips.
"Fast bastard…" So-yeon grunted, cracking his knuckles. "Good." He dove back in, fists blazing.
Each strike was dodged by a hair, each counter heavier than steel. The Neonate's claw tore across So-yeon's shoulder, but he twisted, locked its arm, and suplexed it into the stone floor, shattering the ground.
The vampire snarled, blood magic flaring.
---
The Neonate slashed its wrist — blood spilled, but instead of dripping, it floated, twisting into crimson spears.
"Blood Manipulation…" Jae-seok muttered, his telepathic senses straining.
The spears shot forward.
Jae-seok raised both hands. The air bent. Invisible pressure slammed the spears mid-air, crushing them into liquid before they reached the squad.
But the effort made him stagger, veins glowing at his temples.
"Tch… it's resisting my hold!"
The vampire blurred again, appearing in front of him — claws raised to split his skull.
Rin moved.
His sword intercepted the strike in a shower of sparks. The Codex blade rang against those claws, each impact shaking his bones.
---
The vampire attacked like a storm. Blinding speed, claws cutting the air. Rin's body moved on instinct, blade flowing like water — parry, sidestep, thrust. His foot slid across the stone, momentum shifting with each strike.
A claw slashed for his throat. Rin ducked, twisting low, slashing the vampire's knee in one smooth arc.
It roared, stumbling.
But even wounded, its speed sharpened. Its claw grazed Rin's cheek, drawing blood.
The Codex whispered within him:
Precision, not haste. The blade answers intent.
Rin's eyes narrowed. He inhaled, body sinking into stance.
---
Hyun-woo's Flames
At that moment, Hyun-woo's voice echoed:
"Solar Flare!"
A blast of white-hot fire engulfed the vampire, lighting the crypt like a second sun. Its screech echoed as its skin blistered — but then, impossibly, the flames bent, twisting into a blood-red sphere in the vampire's palm.
It had absorbed part of the fire with its blood magic.
"Damn it—"
The sphere exploded outward.
The squad was hurled back, stone raining from the ceiling.
---
The vampire pounced on Rin, claws descending.
Rin shifted, blade snapping upward in a crescent arc. [One point Severance].
The strike cut clean through the vampire's arm, black blood spraying.
It shrieked, staggering. So-yeon leapt in, both fists crashing into its jaw, driving it down to its knees.
"Hyun-woo!" Rin shouted.
Flames erupted around the vampire.
"Domain: Infernal Grasp!" Hyun-woo roared, fire swallowing the creature whole.
Pinned by So-yeon's brute force, trapped within the flames, the vampire screamed — until Rin's blade descended one last time, severing its heart.
The Neonate's body convulsed, then dissolved into ash, its crimson glow snuffed out.
---
System Notification:
[Dungeon Boss Defeated. Dungeon Clear — Processing Exit.]
Relief filled the squad.
But the gate didn't open.
Instead, the oldest coffin in the crypt trembled, sigils glowing faintly.
A sound — not of stone breaking, but of something ancient awakening — echoed through the chamber.
The air turned cold.
Rin's blade trembled in his hand, though not from his own will.
A coffin began to creak open. Older, darker, its lid carved with sigils long forgotten. A wave of sinister, suffocating aura spread through the chamber.
And a voice — cold, hungry — whispered in their minds:
"Prey… come closer."
Apale hand tipped with black claws emerged, gripping the coffin's edge. The Elder Vampire began to rise.
---
[??? Detected]
The Elder stepped out. Taller, broader, draped in shadows. Its eyes gleamed like molten rubies, fangs bared, presence oppressive enough to make the air itself feel heavy.
The squad froze.
"There are…" Jae-seok's voice trembled, mind-sense failing to fully scan it.
"…no hidden bosses."
The Elder's smile widened.
---
Codex Record — Vampires of the Crimson Crypts
> Vampires are not the feral beasts of common tavern tales. They wear the faces of nobility—suited in dark coats, white gloves, and crimson-lined cloaks. Their manners are deliberate, their cruelty refined. To the System, they are monsters. To themselves, they are lords.
Fledgling Vampires — the lowest caste, still bound by hunger. They move in packs, fangs bared, but their suits hang loose upon their thin frames, as if the elegance was borrowed and not earned.
Neonate Vampires — those who have tasted centuries. Their garments are sharper, their eyes glowing faintly with bloodlight. They carry themselves like predators at a banquet, savoring every strike as art.
Elder Vampires — crowned in bone, their very presence reshapes the air. Their hair is marked by streaks of pale silver, their eyes burn like dusk, and their garments carry the weight of dynasties. Where they walk, silence follows, as if the dungeon itself bows.